RICHMOND, Ind. — The laughter begins almost right away, and it never abates for long during Officer Tim Davis’ classroom visit.

The third-graders excitedly answer Davis’ questions and eagerly offer their own questions.

It’s Davis’ first visit in Kathy Benner’s Starr Elementary class, so his goal is to introduce himself and explain his uniform and equipment. His introduction raises the energy level and elicits the first peals of laughter when he says he’s a doctor, then a firefighter, then an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader.

That energy never wanes throughout his description of his uniform, from what he calls his Nike Crimestopper shoes to the Batman emblem on his protective vest. For some reason, he also thinks pants — except for Captain Underpants — are important for catching bad guys, eliciting more laughs.

This year, Davis began spending three days a week visiting Richmond Community Schools' elementary buildings as he and Detective Neal VanMiddlesworth have been assigned to Richmond Police Department’s rejuvenated Youth Services Division, which is led by Lt. Donnie Benedict. In fact, Benedict said, the first goal for the division was putting Davis, who had been doing limited school visits, in schools more often.

“We started with Tim in November when we knew he was coming when he got his assignment,” Benedict said. “I told him, I said, ‘Go to your school principals and get it ready, so we can hit the ground running in January.’ And we hit the ground running.”

The introductory visit is the first visit in a curriculum, borrowed heavily from the summer Safety Village program, that Davis had approved by school principals. Topics involve rules, car safety, home alone, stranger danger, medicines and drugs, fire safety, weapon safety and bullying.

“The big thing is that they’re here to show kids how to be safe and to know that they’re a resource,” she said of Davis, who was joined Tuesday by Benedict and VanMiddlesworth in Benner’s classroom. “If a kid is in a bad situation, they know that when police officers and safety people arrive, it’s a good thing, it’s not anything to hide from or be scared, even if they might have had experiences to the contrary in their life or be told something different at times. That’s not true based on the experiences they have here. It’s a big deal.”

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Officer Tim Davis talks about his uniform as he and Detective Neal VanMiddlesworth visit a Starr Elementary School third-grade classroom.(Photo: Mike Emery/Palladium-Item)

During Tuesday’s visit, the officers discussed among themselves their first experiences with police officers. All were positive; however, that’s not the case with today’s children. VanMiddlesworth remembered the terrified looks on children’s faces when SWAT officers enter a home, and Benedict noted that some children watch a parent being taken to jail or have been themselves taken from parents.

“It’s a positive dialogue that’s taking place that the kids are initiating with law enforcement,” he said. “It’s hard to get that nowadays from their education of cops, what they see on TV and unfortunately what sometimes parents or families bring into the house.”

Benedict said students do warm up to officers with just a little exposure at school.

During Coffee With a Cop at Starr early in 2017 before there had been any officer visits, students steered clear of visiting officers and were scared, Benedict said. A visit from McGruff the Crime Dog the next day helped break the ice, Benedict said, and the officers and students were sharing breakfast by the end of the week.

The experience, however, was the opposite at Westview Elementary, where Davis had begun once-a-month classroom visits late in 2016. When other officers visited during Coffee With a Cop, Benedict said, students greeted them with high-fives and hugs.

“The kids were already there,” Benedict said. “They were at the point of being comfortable with the officers. So that little amount that he was in there made such a tremendous difference when we went there, and it was extremely noticeable.”

Now, Polk-Meek said, Starr students react the same way.

“The thing that’s been the most noticeable for us here at Starr is that now when police officers do come it’s not shocking or surprising,” she said. “It’s high-fives, it’s hellos, it’s hugs. There’s a noticeable difference, and we, just as they do, feel really strongly about that just keeps our kids safe. They see police officers as a refuge, as a group of people to go to if they need help, and not somebody to fear in any way, shape or form.”

With a familiar face such as Davis in a school, the students build trust, enabling the officers to increase their impact beyond just safety lessons. They begin to guide students to better choices and can serve as role models. Polk-Meek uses that with a group of mostly boys that have been identified as having tendencies toward physical aggression and match profiles of people likely to later be in trouble. Davis now meets with them for lunch before his classroom visits.

“It’s also just about having a positive male role model of any standing, because several young men in that particular group don’t have that,” Polk-Meek said. “They’re being raised by grandmothers or aunts or mothers, so perceptually speaking (they) have some difficulties deciding what it means to be manly. He’s helping them decide what that reality is.”

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Officer Tim Davis talks to students about obeying the law to stay out of handcuffs during his visit to a Starr Elementary School third-grade classroom.(Photo: Mike Emery/Palladium-Item)

Sending Davis into schools three of the five days he works each week takes commitment from RPD, which had abandoned the Youth Services Division because of shrinking manpower. Chief Jim Branum’s administration prioritized Youth Services enough to expand Davis’ role with students and assign VanMiddlesworth as the division’s investigator.

Benedict said the results in the schools, with just the time Davis spends, pays dividends.

“This isn’t a massive effort,” he said. “This is a small effort that’s making a huge impact.”

As Davis slowly backed his way from Benner’s classroom, receiving high-fives from third-graders crowded around him and ready to go home, Benedict noted that Davis would be more popular in a Richmond elementary than Batman.

“Put any superhero walking down the hall with Tim, and they’d go to Tim,” Benedict said of the students.

Davis, who served in Youth Services' previous incarnation, now teaches students who are children of people he knows from his school days or whom he’s dealt with during his RPD career. He said he enjoys the interaction, as obviously do the students.

As Davis talks in the hallway, he offers a “what’s up, buddy,” to a passing student.

“You work the streets — that’s my first love, that’s why I became a police officer, to be in the street and drive the car, chase the bad guys — but you deal with that certain element of people every day (and) you get a little cynical after a while,” he said. “So now you come in here with the kids. It’s good to see the relationship they can build with me and vice versa.”

VanMiddlesworth also previously worked in Youth Services. He said veteran officer Andre Gordon told him that working the division would either change him, or it wouldn’t. VanMiddlesworth discovered that you see the children and their families and learn why the children act as they do. He said the work is rewarding and offers a chance to make a difference through positive interactions and guidance.

“My idea of what policing should be is more like the Saturday Evening Post picture, so this is where I get to do that,” VanMiddlesworth said of the famous artwork showing a police officer sitting beside a young child at a restaurant counter. “It just takes you down a different trajectory. It’s a great assignment, really.”

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A third-grader laughs during a presentation by Officer Tim Davis at Starr Elementary School.(Photo: Mike Emery/Palladium-Item)

VanMiddlesworth will investigate cases involving juveniles, except for most molestations, Benedict said. He also will follow up on leads developed by the department’s intelligence-led policing model and has been trained in the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, which leans away from incarceration and toward other options.

“He knows now when he’s approaching these investigations where he needs to be as far as is this an arrest or a referral issue to probation,” Benedict said. “Is it a kid in need of services? He’s aware of some of the resources available to kids outside the criminal justice system. With that in place, (Neal VanMiddlesworth's) role is actually going to be very important when it comes to investigating cases, because the culture is changing and with him being involved with the JDAI program.”

JDAI attempts to protect juveniles from hardening by time spent in the Department of Correction system and to reduce recidivism. The model looks beyond the crime and to the reasons a juvenile might act differently than an adult. Understanding juveniles and their differences cognitively and emotionally from adults is the focus of Teaching the Teen Brain training that has been offered by the Wayne County Probation Department.

“The Teaching the Teen Brain training is great insight in understanding from our perspective, just recognizing some of the trauma that some of these kids have been exposed to, why they’re lashing out,” said VanMiddlesworth, adding that officers learn how to avoid triggers with the juveniles, how to de-escalate situations and how to develop an immediate rapport with the juveniles. “Maybe the criminal justice system isn’t the best place initially for these children.”

Wayne County children experience a variety of traumas, according to statistics from the Indiana Youth Institute and the Department of Child Services. IYI’s annual Kids Count Data Book that was recently released cited data that 25.2 percent of Wayne County children live in poverty and that 23.5 percent experience food insecurity, and DCS recorded 417 substantiated cases of sexual abuse, physical abuse or neglect in Wayne County during 2017. These are all more indications that the city needs a Youth Services division.

With the primary goal already accomplished by entering each elementary school, Benedict has further plans for Youth Services in conjunction with the Community Engagement Division he also supervises. First, RPD will conduct a bike rodeo May 12 at Veterans Memorial Park that will be followed by a trail ride on the Cardinal Greenway.

Benedict also said a cadet program will soon begin for ages 16 to 20. Sgt. Brandon Cappa will coordinate that program for teens serious about possibly pursuing a career in law enforcement.

“In theory, once they get to age 20, they age out of the cadet program, then they can step into a reserve officer’s position or they could potentially get into a professional position if the timing’s right and positions are available,” he said. “We want it to be a feeder program with quality candidates for our department.”

For ages 14 to 18, a Youth Citizens Police Academy is planned that would be similar to the annual Citizens Police Academy. Teens exposed to that program could then, if interested, continue into the cadet program.

Davis was taken off the street last summer for two weeks to help teach at Safety Village, and Benedict said, Davis will again spend both weeks this summer at Safety Village. VanMiddlesworth will participate as his schedule allows.

Other goals during 2018 include updating records and tracking runaway reports, working to better assist DCS when requested, making home visits as needed while assisting RCS with attendance compliance, providing additional training to line officers with regards to Youth Services initiatives, continuing Coffee With a Cop twice a month, strengthening neighborhood groups, incorporating a crime watch app for RPD, utilizing intelligence-led policing, participating in community events, manning booths at the Wayne County 4-H Fair and other events and working with the building commissioner on neighborhood code enforcement projects.

“I think we’ve got the right people in the right seats this time through,” Benedict said. “Tim’s proven himself over and over again in the classroom. I think you’re going to see good things come out of the investigation side of this with Neal’s past experience in the juvenile division as an officer and a school resource officer, now as an investigator. The right people are in place.”